STATE OF THE UNION: THE OVERVIEW

STATE OF THE UNION: THE OVERVIEW; Unbowed, Clinton Presses Social Security Plan

By JAMES BENNET

Published: January 20, 1999

Correction Appended

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19—
President Clinton proposed tonight that the Federal Government invest for the first time in the stock market to strengthen Social Security, as he delivered a confident report on the State of the Union to a divided Congress considering cutting short his Presidency.

Appearing in the grand House chamber a month to the day after he was impeached there, Mr. Clinton also urged Congress to begin contributing $33 billion a year to a new system of retirement accounts for American workers.

The President smiled and even joked with his audience of antagonists and allies as he ignored the trial steps away in the Senate -- where lawyers began defending him just a few hours earlier -- and envisioned using the rest of his term to strengthen the nation's schools, military forces and programs for the elderly.

In a sure-footed, 77-minute address, Mr. Clinton coupled a rosy appraisal of the nation's state with an urgent appeal for action, flaunting his laurels but insisting he would not rest on them.

''America is working again,'' the President said. ''The promise of our future is limitless. But we cannot realize that promise if we allow the hum of our prosperity to lull us into complacency.'' [Transcript, pages A22-23.]

Mr. Clinton announced tonight that the Justice Department was preparing to sue tobacco companies, opening a new front in a war that has repeatedly gained him political ground. He argued that Federal programs like Medicare were due hundreds of billions of dollars for the costs of treating lung cancer and other diseases.

Mr. Clinton left it to his lawyers to attack the charges that he broke the law to cover up his affair with Monica S. Lewinsky, the former intern.

But he seized on his State of the Union Message as his most potent defense, just as for the last turbulent year he has counted on his dogged advocacy of popular programs to sustain him.

Mr. Clinton exuded ease and a sense of political control, reacting with unmistakable delight when both sides of the chamber erupted in applause for his call for equal pay for equal work by women or men.

''That was more encouraging, you know,'' he said, grinning and spreading his arms wide as he bent slightly from side to side. ''There was more balance on the seesaw. I like that!''

After the traditional, bipartisan ovation welcoming the President, Democrats applauded far longer and louder, and some of Mr. Clinton's accusers sat with lips compressed and hands folded.

But Mr. Clinton tried to draw his opponents in. Early on, he recalled the acceptance speech of the new Speaker, Dennis Hastert, who urged members to work together in a spirit of civility and bipartisanship.

''Mr. Speaker, let's do exactly that,'' the President said, turning and extending his hand to the Republican. A surprised Mr. Hastert stood and accepted the handshake.

The President presented his legislative shopping list -- from an initiative to ease traffic congestion to a $1 billion program to help people switch from welfare to work -- to a Republican Congress with far different plans for spending the surpluses accumulating after decades of deficits. He did not explain how he would pay for most of his programs.

Yet even if some of his plans stand little chance of passage, Mr. Clinton was able to command a television audience for a recitation of the economic benefits of his leadership -- and an implicit argument that the trial is an unwarranted distraction from important business.

''With our budget surplus growing, our economy expanding, our confidence rising, now is the moment for this generation to meet our historic responsibility to the 21st Century,'' Mr. Clinton said. Calling this time ''a new dawn for America,'' he urged his listeners to ''put aside our divisions'' and find ''a new hour of healing and hopefulness.''

Mr. Clinton recognized several people in the galleries to underscore his points. Among them, Sammy Sosa, the home run hitter, and Rosa Parks, the civil rights demonstrator, brought thunderous applause that created an image of bipartisan bonhomie, at least on television.

The President also singled out his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose loyalty and advice have been important to his political stamina. ''I'd like to take just a minute to honor her,'' he said. Mrs. Clinton beamed as the President gazed up at her through squinting eyes. She rose, sat, then rose again to wave and acknowledge applause.

In all, Mr. Clinton was interrupted about 98 times by the usually partisan applause.

Illustrating the peculiar political dynamic unfolding here, Republican leaders also seemed eager today to play down the trial. They laid out their own legislative agenda this morning, insisting that mulling the first removal of a sitting President would not divert them from what Trent Lott, the majority leader, called ''the people's business.''

In giving the Republican response tonight, Rep. Jennifer Dunn of Washington assured her viewers that ''our country is not in crisis,'' and that ''no matter what the outcome of the President's situation, life in America will go on.''

Mr. Clinton devoted only a fraction of his speech to foreign policy, joining in one paragraph a statement of pride in Northern Ireland's peace with a condemnation of the violence in Kosovo.

Correction: January 21, 1999, Thursday A front-page picture caption yesterday about President Clinton's remarks to Representative Dennis Hastert referred incorrectly to Mr. Hastert's experience as Speaker. It was the second House session over which he presided, not the first.